Professional Photographer? Let’s delight our customers together!

OilByHand wasn’t always a website. In fact, our founder (and first artist), Yuto, started off selling commissioned artwork door to door to local businesses in San Francisco.

Her first customer was a coffee shop in the Lower Nob Hill area. One day Yuto ordered a latte and was delighted to see that the barista created a leaf design in the foam. That weekend Yuto was looking for artistic inspiration and decided to create a painting of the latte. A few days later she returned to the coffee shop with the artwork, showed the shop’s owner, and immediately landed her first customer!

It didn’t take long for Yuto to find her second customer. While walking by a photography studio she had another good idea. The studio had photographic portraits, wedding pictures, pet pictures, and more displayed in the window. Yuto realized the studio’s customers might be interested in oil paintings on canvas of the pictures – and they wouldn’t even have to pose again. Yuto shared the idea with the owner and a few minutes later he ordered a sample painting for himself! We still work with the studio to offer oil paintings an additional service to his customers (and at a much higher price point than we charge online).

If you’re a professional photographer or studio and you’re interested in partnering with us to delight your customers (or you just want to know which coffee shop) please reach out to us at support@oilbyhand.com for more information!